Method of applying backstays to shoe uppers



' June 3, 1947.

c. c. EATON METHOD OF APPLYING BACKSTAYS, TO SHOE UPPERS Filed Dec. 22, 1944 Patented June 3, 1947 Charles Chester Eaton, Brockton, Mass, assignor to Charles A. Eaton Company, Brockton, Mass, a corporation of Massachusetts Application December 22, 1944, Serial No. 569,353

2 Claims. ,(01. 12-146) The present invention relates to shoes provided with backstays which cover the vertical seam at the rear end of the upper. Its objects are to facilitate the application of backstays and the lasting of shoe uppers, and to give a better fit and appearance at the heel end of the shoe upper.

In the making of shoe uppers, the rear edges tion, ofa shoe having a backstay applied to the upper in the manner of this invention;

Fig. 3 is a perspective View of the heel end of an upper after the pieces which form the quarter thereof have been stitched together at the back seam and before application of the. backstay or the lining;

of those parts of the upper which form the quarter Fig, 4 is a perspective view of the backstay of the shoe are cut with a convex curvature and shown in Figs. 1 and, 2; stitched together. The convexity thereby pro- Fig. 5 is a perspective view showing the upper duced in the united parts of the quarter enables and backstay in the condition which follows the that part of the upper to conform to the last and first step of the attaching procedure; causes it to fit well around the spheroidal curva- Fig. 6 is a cross section of the same taken on ture of the wearers heel when incorporated in a line 66 of Fig.5; finished shoe. But it also causes difficulty in the Fig. 7 is a vertical section through the upper application of backstays which extend throughand backstay at one side of the back seam taken out the height of the upper from the top edge approximately on thelinel-l or Fig. 6; thereof to the heel seat. Fig. 8 is a section similar to Fig. 6 showing the Heretofore in the making of shoes provided results of the final steps of securing the backstay with backstays of this character it has been the to the upper. g i universal practice to stitch the backstay first Like reference characters designate the same along one of its edges to the upper, holding it as parts wherever they occur in all the figures. nearly as possible in symmetrical relation to the Although the illustration in these drawings back seam, and then stitch the opposite edge to shows the invention applied to a low quarter sho the upper. This has been a difilcult operation, 5 this is not intended as a limitationof the inrequiring much skill, great care and considerable vention to shoesof that. category. On the conmuscular effort on th part of the operator to hold trary, it is applicable to shoe uppers with high the backstay firmly 1n the correct position and tops as well; i a make it as smooth as possible These difiiculties In the drawingsu and b represent the rear ends are particularly pronounced inthe case of backof the two pieces of leather or other material stays with curved edges and varying Widths; alwhich fornithe quarter of the shoe. Their rear though they are present inall cases. Even with extremities are'c'ut on a convex curve, as usual, the greatest care puckers or wrinkles are usually and stitched'together by any suitable kind of seam, for-med either in the upper leather beneath the that here shown at 0 being a butt seam connected backstay or at one or both margins of the backby zigzag stitches, which is one of the standard stay on the outside of the shoe. When wrinkles types of seam for this part of the work. The backare formed on the inside of the upper they imstay is shown at d. The one here illustrated is of pair the fit and cause discomfort to the wearer, varying width, having a narrow portion or neck and when on the outside they detract from the between wider ends. n i sid edges being appearance of the shoe and decrease the dur- 40 curved with reversed curvature and being non ability of the attachment of the backstay. Too parallel in most of their length. frequently also the wrinkling is so bad that the The novelty of the present invention consists value of the upper is seriously impaired and it can in t e p o edu of attaching the backstay to the be used only in a shoe of lower price than that of upper an th m n r of t a n re ltin the shoe for which the upper was intended. therefrom. The backstay is first attached by two The purpose and accomplishment of my invenrows of stitches, or seams, e and f, located at option is to overcome these difliculties and produce posite sides of the back seam c and preferably as better fitting and better looking shoe uppers. The nearly parallel to and equidistant from that seam invention consists in the new procedure described as possible. By way of general statement it may in the following specification and in the new be said that the rows of stitches e and f are paralcharacteristics of shoe uppers and shoes resulting lel to the back seam and equally distant from it. from the p t e o this procedure. This doesnot mean that the parallelism and The accompanying drawings illustrate the equality of distance must be exact within the principles of the invention, and therein, closest possible limits, but includes variations Fig. 1 is a side elevation, and Fig. 2 a rear eleva from exactness within reasonable limits,

Preferably the two rows of stitches e and f are applied simultaneously by a double needle sewing machine. Although this is not an absolute essential of the invention, yet it is practically necessary in the interest of economy of time and effort by the operator. It also insures absolute parallelism of the two rows of stitches and reduces the element of care on the-part of the operator to only that which willinsure that the stitches are on opposite sides of the back seam and substantially parallel to and equally distant from it.

In this way the back seam is laid smoothlyover the convex curve of the quarter and is securely and immovably attached to it. Thenthe margins of the backstay are separately and insuccession made fast to the upper by stitches placed near to the edges of the backstayanjd following the curvatures of such edges. Preferably two rows of stitches are set near each edge by a double needle sewing machine of which the two needles are close together; but a single row may be applied instead. The utility-of the double row is that it increasesthe securityanddurability of the attachment. Fig. final stitches adjacent to one-edge-of the'backstay,

8 shows at ;g'two rows of and at it two similar rows-of stitches adjacent to the opposite edge. Thereafter the upper 'is assembled with a lining and other findings,

placed on a last, and incorporated-into a'finished shoe 'by any suitable method of 'shoe making.

Th new procedure here involved has numerous advantages over the old. It simplifies the operation of attachinga backstay,;causes the appearance and fit of the upper to-be improved,-and avoids substantially all ofthe loss and waste due to unsatisfactoryplacement of 'backstays according to the old practice. As previously :pointed out, the stitching of the parallelseam e and f is a simple operation-easy to perform correctly. Thereafter, each of the edge stitching operations is equally simpleandeasilyperformed. They are preferably 'startedat the upper edge of the upper. In progressing thence toward the lower edge, the presser foot of the sewing machine smooths the backstay and presses out any wrinkles that may-tend to form due to the transverse curvature thenimposed on 'the b ackstay. Due to the initial attachment of th backstay along its middle zone, the widths between the seam eand the ,neareredge of thestay are equal to the wi ths .betw cnseam f and th other edge. .Hcn c thes itchingdownqfone edgedoes not increase the tendency for wrinkles and 4 puckers to form in either the stay or the quarter piece when the other edge is stitched down, as is the case with the 01d method. This preserves the curves at the heel end of the upper just as designed by the pattern maker. These improvements are manifest in the upper at the time of lasting by the way in which it better fits the heel end of the last, and in the finished shoe by making a better fitting and more comfortable shoe, free from interior wrinkles or ridges and having a better appearance due to the smooth accommodation of the bac-kstay to the contours of the upper.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

.l. The method of connecting a backstay of single thickness to a shoe upper which has quariter pieces with convex edges sewed together, comprising fastening the longitudinal middle zone of the backstay to the upper by rows of stitches near to said seam at opposite sides thereof, and then stitching the edge portions of the backstay to the upper progressively from the top edge to the bottom'edge of the upper by the operation of a sewing machine.

2 The method of connecting a backstay to a shoe upperwhichhas quarter pieces with convex edges sewed together, which comprises fastening the longitudinal middle zone of the 'backstay to the upper by running simultaneously two parallel lines of stitchingalong said zone and near to the upper seamat opposite sides thereof, and

thereafter stitching the edge portions of the backstay to the upper.

CHARLES CHESTER EATON.

REFERENCES CITED The Iollowingreferences are of record in'the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS OTHER 'REFERENCES AABCdas Schuhdlabrikation, Mar. 9, 1934, Page +126. 

